Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Couldn't wait, i had to wear Lanvin now!

I was one of the lucky bloggers who could wear the Lanvin collection before the others, touch the fabrics, take the pictures, have them as a gift, neither Madonna or Jlo could have them in advance.
Ah ah I'm kidding. It's not true. We're not one of those fortunates but we do can wear Lanvin in advance, yes there's a way. Do it ourselves!
Why? Because it's fun! Because we can do it our way!Because it will fit perfectly!
My chosen dress from Lanvin collection is the black little black dress decorated with all those loops

This one!
Ok my passion for fashion is eating me and i want to get involved in the process of dress making. I want choose the fabrics, i want to draw patterns, i want to learn as much as i can the way i like it more, discovering step by step, resolving one problem at the time when a question arises. Call me crazy i can't stop myself.
So after a week searching for the fabric (you can find every patterned fabric you like but when you need black no one has it!) i managed to get my hands on a 1.5 meters of black wool a little acrylic in it that gives just a little bit of stretch.
I came home and it was time for pattern making.
This is a classic lbd sleeveless, this basic dress pattern worked fine! It has 4 seams that define waist line.

If you want i'll translate for you the legend so you can draw your pattern according to your measurements, mail me if you need them!(*DONE*)
Now some work till i got the dress ready to be decorated!The pattern
Loose threads And the dress is done!
Now let's move on with decorations!
I've cut more than 60 rectangles of fabric for the decorations, sewn the borders to avoid loose threads, folded and then sewn on the dressDeciding loops position (they don't need to be on rows just try to fill the space regularly)Finished dress

What do you think?I put longer loops at the neck to make it more regular and well refined. I decored the dress on the back of the skirt too, i don't know if the Lanvin's dress has decorations on the back.Personally i don't like those dresses decorated on the front only because they make the dress look like an apron. It looks like they didn't have enought time to finish the dress.
As you can see i left the waist decorations free. That's where you put a wide elastic belt. The final result is a slim looking waist compared to the puffy effect of the decorate dress. I love it!

Dress tried on
Now just some numbers to let you figure out if it's worth realize this dress instead of just buying it.
the fabric cost 22 euro (but was a special price, a remainder piece)
(price of fabric will depend of your choice (and shop), polyester is 8 euro per meter, pure light wool 44 euros per meter)
i employed a full day of work to complete it, like 9 hours
Lanvin dress is 129 euro
Now i'm even more curious to see the h&m collection!

Hi Mina!The first dress should be easy to do:it's a basically a tube.Copy the same the armhole and collar shown here then go straight down without defining waist (consider hips width).You should have a "tube" dress now.Just below the waist sew an elastic to define waist and have the soft blouse.

For the sleeves,those ruffles can be obtained this way:first read this tutorial

when you have your circle to open it up make small cuts into the smaller circle until you obtain a straight piece of fabric then sew it vertically around the arm hole obtaining the ruffle.Consider that the inner circle defines the lenght of the piece of fabric you'll have and the difference between the radius of the circles defines the widht of the piece of fabric.

It maybe seems difficult to explain in words but easy to make.if i find a remainder piece of fabric i'll shoot a few pictures for you. have a nice day Mina and thanks for coming!:)